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)) tf - Friday, March 04, 2016, 7:01 PM ------------------------------------ Sgt. Nakamea says, "Sirs! I'm detecting activity on the Eye-Seek satellites...looks like it could be another bug hunt coming up." General Kenya Momesa says, "Transmit coordinates. All available troops are ordered to move to intercept them." Major Winslow says, "Hot Damn, I knew the system upgrades would pay off. Now we've got em!" Talia McKinley says, "'Bout time those bugs crawled back out where we can go squash 'em." Sgt. Nakamea says, "Yes, Sir. It appears to be within operational distance from Nakambe! Speculation is that, given the previous encounters, the Insecticons will most likely move to devour Senegal!" Major Winslow says, "Activating the Land Bridge, as we speak." Talia McKinley says, "Reckon it's time to put a stop to this bug buffet. Firehawk warmin' up and movin' out." Poise says, "What is it with these bugs? Alright fine, we've got the power, lets send these buggies packing once and for all." General Kenya Momesa says, "I'm inbound. Currently above Algeria." Juliet Lovelace says, "Juliet Lovelace here with the International News Network. For the fifth time in six months, we've received word that an assault is being carried out on Earth's soil by Decepticon forces. Yet again, it appears that our Autobot allies have mysteriously been absent in these encounters. We're bringing in live footage from our drone coverage team on high!" Talia McKinley says, "Oh good, the media already caught wind of it too." Talia climbs into the cockpit of her VTOL craft, ready to take to the skies. Poise sents out a signal, her combat cycle roars up to her side in a moment's notice. General Kenya Momesa says, "It was to be expected. As long as they don't get in our way I don't mind." General Kenya Momesa says, "Keep your eyes open. I'm sure these bugs are looking for something and I want to know what it is. Do your best to contain them and limit damages." Just as predicted by the advanced EDC vigilant team, northwest of the EDC base in Nakambe forest, and due north of Senegal itself, satellites start picking up activity. Sat-fed intel starts popping up to all involved EDC agents, feeding telemetry and overhead tactical analysis of the situation. Highlight markers on HUDs identify the dozen makes of Insecticon agents, having erupted from the mountains to the north that are totally there. In a wide fan, they spread out, searching and homing. Already the swarm of purple and black smell the city to the south, and those precious nutrients therein.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yQajJ2pdek Power Armor flies in coming from the north. <> The benefactor commander sweeps the area identifying the various location where the Insecticons are concentrated. Finally, judging it worths a try, he drops from the sky and heavily land between of the largest group, raising a cloud of dust around him. As he exits the cloud, he raises his hand, gesturing the insect to stop, "Stop right there. This is your final warning." The Nebulan Poise adjusts her techglasses, and slips her helmet back on. The so-called 'Nerdy Neb' radios in, her voice chipper, "Poise here. I've hit the groundbridge, and have received coordinates. En route!" Her hovercycle roars to life as she twists the throttle, leaving dust in her wake. "Is that Commander McKinley's IFF I see up there? Sir, been looking at getting some additional training for the skies." She veers past a large rock, then hits the second, oddly ramp-like rock, careening up into the sky as peppy music plays in the background. "That Firehawk looks like a gem!" Swiftly the Firehawk rises out over the Nakambe forest and throttles engines up to full. One would almost thing the vibrationg thrum coming from the VTOL's engines sounded like a stiff being stretching the joints, but that's just your mind affixing familiar human traits to a perception. Maybe. When you've spent enough time around alien machines that do have actual emotions it gets difficult to tell the two apart sometimes. While they are cruising to the site and the big boss is doing the leader thing demanding they stop, Talia flicks the switchs to fully fire up the weapons systems because lets face it, they're probably not going to listen. Then she sits back and flips the visor of her flight helmet down with one hand, after stowing her stetson away for safe keeping. "Time to remind these creepy crawlies Earth ain't no free smorge.. smurgo.." then yelps a flustered "buffet line!" when she can't get the big fancy word right past her drawl. Then a pause as she glances off to one readout. "Commander, got readin's comin' in that there's some kinda machinery down there -other- than the arthopodic rejects." ... How does she manage to say -that- but not 'smorgesboard'? GAME: Daniel Witwicky has connected. Western Africa(#7743Rnt) - Africa Rich in iron, gold, diamonds, copper, lead, zinc, and uranium, Western Africa is more than just its mineral wealth. The coast varies from low, muddy swamps and tidal creeks to well-defined sandy beaches, barrier ridges, and lagoons. Inland are lush rainforests with their 200-foot broad-leafed trees eventually giving way to deciduous woodlands, grassy savanna grazed by flocks of sheep, goat, and cattle, and finally the Sahara desert. The climate ranges from hot and dry in the north to hot and rainy to the south. Dakar, which means 'tamarind tree', is one of the chief seaports, located midway between the mouths of the Gambia and Senegal rivers. The capital of Senegal, it houses embassies, hospitals, museums, and public buildings and is a leading industrial and service center. Contents: Punch(#3402) Smokescreen(#1950) Power Armor (#7603) VSC-25 Firehawk (#10898) Combat Hovercycle (#2414) EDC Headquarters (#11062) Ore Processing Station (#8709) Hidden Landing Site(#3998) Senegal(#826) Obvious Exits: Southwest leads to Eastern Central Atlantic. East leads to Sahara. Fly Poise says, "What's a smorgesmurgo?" Daniel Witwicky has arrived. Making up ground from the horizon to the front line is a blue, unmarked, car. As it nears the advancing line of insecticons the car folds upwards into the more familiar form of Punch. Well, familiar to anyone who knows, or recognises him at least. Moving forward Punch subspaces his mortar to hand and transmits << It doesn't make up for the time someone should've been on Earth but that's for later. Any objections to another pair of hands just now? >> Punch doesn't really await an answer before firing, full spread, to try and kep the far flank from getting too far forward. Daniels exo suit transforms to its hovering vehicle mode. Talia McKinley says, "Jibberish" Smokescreen is followig Punch and pulls up to transform when he does, <> he says and readys his weapon to fire. Daniel Witwicky says, "Sounds a little like a mangled smorgasbord?" Poise says, "whats that?" Daniel Witwicky says, "A range of food, typically sandwhiches." Other Insecticons, those of varying intelligence and aggressiveness sweep about as well, landing, chewing the roof off of a building quickly. Some burrow underground, no doubt eating the plumbing and wiring of the building. Sparks fly as electrical cables fall, their supports eaten and dismantled by the frenzied hunger. It is Kenya Momesa, in his power armor that stands against a looming swarm of Insecticons, their shadow covering the veteran as they fly overhead. Aggressive and ravenous, they move as one, a thick cloud that tapers forwards towards the ore refinery that Kenya correctly predicted would be their first target. The swarm descends, flitting shapes of both great and small sizes, buzzing, frantic chittering and half-formed words as they light upon the refinery and start devouring it, paying the Benefactor little mind. "...hunger...quickly!...Seek...SEEK! FIND....FASTER...Need....eat.....WHERE?" Other Insecticons, those of varying intelligence and aggressiveness sweep about as well, landing, chewing the roof off of a building quickly. Some burrow underground, no doubt eating the plumbing and wiring of the building. Sparks fly as electrical cables fall, their supports eaten and dismantled by the frenzied hunger. You drop Insecticon Hive Workers. Combat: Imager strikes Power Armor with Insecticon Hive Workers's Buffeted by a storm of wings! attack! -2 Combat: That attack has temporarily impaired Power Armor 's Agility. (Crippled) Power Armor blinks as the Autobots make their entrance. "Where the hell are they coming from." he mutters for himself. Not too sure what it means, the masai warrior decides to ignore tham for now and concentrates on the mass of decepticons in front of him. "Well it was worth a try." he simply says before taking off. He charges right towards the closest insect and crash right into them fists first and them, he's surrounded by the hive. Combat: Power Armor strikes Insecticon Hive Workers with his Punching you superman style! attack! -2 As the Autobots roll up, perhaps surprising the EDC with their sudden presence, Smokescreen notices a beetle off by itself. The Insecticon beetle is gathering a lot of debris and scraps. He pushes the collection of detrius with his back legs in beetle form as he moves around. With an excited whimper, he speaks. "Lots of trash, Lots of trash...pick up the trash...." Poise says, "Command has engaged!" General Kenya Momesa says, "I detected 2 Autobots. Keep an eye on them. It's weird they suddenly reappear like that." Poise says, "Autobots? For real? Hmph, we don't need them! We've got this." Autobots showing up suddenly? Well that's a surprise. But no time to mull it over because they've got big bad bugs to deal with, and sure enough, they're not listening to the demands to stop. <> Which would be the language of, you guessed it, firepower. The Firehawk veers in the direction of the front of the swarm, and lets rip of a spread of machine-gun fire across the head of the horde to slow them down. <> Combat Hovercycle holds a hand to her ear, keeping her helm secure as she leans forwards. The hovercycle slips beneath Talia's Firehawk, adding support to the jet. "Approaching targets... I see them. Commander Momesa's in the mix! Moving to left flank!" She veers her cycle to the side, then taps in a few buttons. "Setting to spray fire and......" Bullets from her minigun sidecar rip out, shredding into the swarm. Combat: Combat Hovercycle strikes Insecticon Hive Workers with her Chain Gun Sidecar attack! -4 Combat: Critical Hit! Combat: VSC-25 Firehawk strikes Insecticon Hive Workers with her Suppression Fire attack! Combat: That attack has temporarily impaired Insecticon Hive Workers's Agility. (Crippled) Okay then. Punch notices that his Mortar's really miscalibrated and the shot really didn't land where he wanted. He hits a few controls to reset it to an earlier setup and tries again. Mostly aiming at the fringes of the swarm he hopes he has better luck this time. Combat: Punch sets his defense level to Fearless. Smokescreen suddenly hears some hurried voice talking about picking up all the trash and he looks over to see... a beetle picking up trash? What? <> and he turns to head toward the beetle. With the EDC and Punch there, these bugs wont be around for long so he's not too worried about it. He slowly approaches the Beetlemech picking up the trash. "Hey there." he says friendly enough. "Why are you doing this?" Mortar fire lights up the sky with the harrying whine of machine gun fire, Three large beetles rise up to engage Talia's Firehawk, the first one of them taking a solid burst of fire into its back, which forces it to flip over. The rest of the barrage eats up its underbelly, sending it writhing to the ground, its legs curling up. A large centipede/pillbug raises up before Kenya, its armored belly withstanding the Benefactor Commander's flying punch. It shudders, shifting backwards from the impact, but with a chittering roar, it opens its fangs to engulf him. The EDC forces are engaged, as well as Punch who enters the fray as well, causing three large wasp Insecticons to hover before him, then with their abdomens glowing, the three spew blue hissing plasma in his direction. Combat: Insecticon Hive Workers strikes Combat Hovercycle with its Swarm Tactics Area attack! Combat: That attack has temporarily impaired Combat Hovercycle 's Agility. (Crippled) Combat: Insecticon Hive Workers misses VSC-25 Firehawk with its Swarm Tactics Area attack! Combat: Insecticon Hive Workers strikes Punch with its Swarm Tactics Area attack! Combat: That attack has temporarily impaired Punch's Agility. (Crippled) Combat: Insecticon Hive Workers misses Power Armor with its Tactical Fire attack! Power Armor easily avoid the Insecticon trying to turn him into his next lunch. He goes higher in to get a better angle for hisnext strike and to check how the others are faring. Since they are not doing too bad, he goes back on the offense, firing energy bursts from his armor's gauntlets. Combat: Power Armor strikes Insecticon Hive Workers with his Gauntlet Blast attack! The Insecticon grunts as it pushes the ball of refuse like its straight out of Katamari! "I'm sorry. I...hurrghh.. gotta get this trash...out of the way." He transforms into his root mode. The Insecticon is short and almost minicon sized, without much in the way of notable weapons. He looks towards the trash ball, "So...so hungry, maybe I should ju..." He reaches out a hand towards that delicious, delicious scrap. "No! I..have to keep building. Food, we need food!" With his magnetic cannon, he janitors the area, pulling in more metal from the fallen antennas and scrap from the refinery's side that has threatened to collapse. Combat Hovercycle winces as the flurry of Insect wings blaze past her position, one getting caught up in her engine. "Reboot, Reboot!" The gun fires automatically when it has a target, sending caseless rounds into the sky with blazing speed and efficiency. She digs out her trusty crowbar, then jabs it into the sputtering hover turbine, trying to knock out the clog. Combat: Combat Hovercycle strikes Insecticon Hive Workers with her Chain Gun Sidecar attack! -4 Oh good, they do have someone to come up to her playing field. Not that it does one of the three beetles much good. The other two launch their attack, but Talia pulls back on her control stick and the Firehawk pulls up out of their attack range as it tilts and veers to the side. Who needs a helicopter when you have mobility like that, am I right? As the VTOL swivels back around to face her attackers Talia thumbs open the cover to the special firing button. "Iffen yer hungry, have a munch of -this-!" When she presses it the autocannon beneath the Firehawk's nose spins up to full speed and spews out several bursts of incedirary rounds at the big bad beetle bums. Combat: VSC-25 Firehawk strikes Insecticon Hive Workers with her Pyrestarter Mode attack! Punch doesn't try to gain distance or really evade the incoming plasma. He angles his arm so he can keep his mortar safe and, therefore, stay in the fight. Two streams sear his chest and the third melts prat of his knee joint. Once it's cooled it'll be workable but, for now, it's not what concerns him. Aiming another shot he widens the spread on his mortar to let it emcompass his three assailants. "I need a vacation. Then a vacation from that vacation." he muses to himself. Combat: Punch strikes Insecticon Hive Workers with his I need a rest sometime. (Laser) attack! In the distance, another Insecticon appears, larger, and some sort of flying mantis with radiant green gusts of wind blowing out of its wings. It watches the battle from afar, unabated. After several moments of watching the horde suffer the assaults of man, it turns its position, moving to climb into the mountainside The horde's frantic nature takes hold, as it starts to split apart, its cohesion weakened by the combined attacks upon it. Certainly the EDC has learned how to combat its prey. Despite repeated incendiary rounds firing through the second beetle, the third manages to use the screen to latch onto Talia's gunship, as it starts to simply devour it. Kenya's energy blast cuts the Centipede in half. It splatters to the ground in oil and gore, then, still moving, it starts to burrow itself away. In its place, the energy web of a trapdoor spider at his feet is spit out, ensnaring him for the firefly artillery coming in against him. Poise's gunfire does a respectable job of warding off the foes before her, but as her cycle sputters around, one of Punch's plasma bugs targets her as easy pickings, landing on her cycle, and squealing as it rears up for the attack. Punch is flanked by the two artillery bugs, who shift mode and land. Both actually just grab bee-Cons from the air, using them as machine guns as they fire stingers at the Autobot! Combat: Insecticon Hive Workers strikes Punch with its Tactical Fire Area attack! Combat: Insecticon Hive Workers strikes Combat Hovercycle with its Tactical Fire Area attack! Combat: Insecticon Hive Workers misses VSC-25 Firehawk with its Tactical Fire Area attack! Combat: Insecticon Hive Workers misses Power Armor with its Crippling Assault attack! Smokescreen watches the beetlbug closely and listens to what he's saying. "You are gettting this area ready for what exactly? You need some help?" he takes a slow step toward the Insecticon in an offer to help. His curiousity is kicking in and if offering to help will get to the bottom of this, so be it. Coming from a totally different direction than the blue unmarked car did some time back, but making up ground just as fast (maybe faster, who can tell for sure), a red and yellow hovercraft makes a beeline for the Insecticons (no pun intended). As he pilots his exo armour closer, Daniel maneuvers his hovercraft in closer before he makes a tight turn and begins to circle the Insecticon Hive, keeping his distance somewhat. <<"So Kenya, I see you have an Insecticon problem going on. Please tell me you kept them out of my backyard?">> With that Daniel flicks a switch and fires off a series of rockets, which seem to have a rainbow of colours for smoke trails as they fly through the air. Combat: Exo Rider strikes Insecticon Hive Workers with his All-Purpose Trick Rockets attack! Combat: Exo Rider 's attack has strange and mysterious effects on Insecticon Hive Workers. Combat: That attack has temporarily affected Insecticon Hive Workers's Accuracy. (Blinded) Fighting...always fighting. Hungry, more food..I...." He pauses, then gestures to himself, as if remembering himself, "Stool." His personality seems to shift, his optics getting a thousand yalm stare, when suddenly Stool altmodes back into the dung beetle, then starts picking up more items as he rolls along, "starving, colony, need more. Searching. Lonely...so lonely." Power Armor picks the larger insecticon on his radar but can't do much about it surrounded as he is by insecticon. He's about to firing again when he receives an unexpected radio communication <> Trying to free himself to go after the larger bug, Kenya throws a nasty kick towards another insecticon. <> Combat: Power Armor strikes Insecticon Hive Workers with his Martial Arts attack! "Oh Ah don't think so!" It's not the first time Talia has fought Insecticons and it shows when she quickly responds to the beetle charging through her fire while the other drops flaming bits hopefully into the swarm to help spread the burn. The Firehawk veers again when the Insecticon latchs on, tilting the VTOL fans in opposite angles to rapidly spin around and let the momentum fling the ugly bugly back off again before it can eat anything too important. "She may be a bird but she bucks like a mad broncho!" Poise says, "On it, sir!" Poise says, "Erp, actually...give me a moment..." Combat: VSC-25 Firehawk strikes Insecticon Hive Workers with her No Inflight Meal For You! (Punch) attack! Combat Hovercycle digs out the broken Insect head, and tosses it aside "Eww!" Commander Momesa gives his orders, and trajectory, which draws her interest, she IS the capable optical technician, but then a bug lands on her ride. She gives a mental command to the chain gun to open fire on the out of range target. It'll record what it is firing at, at the very least, then draws her sidearm, and opens fire at point blank range at the rider. "Sorry buggy, this sidecar is filled!" Combat: Combat Hovercycle strikes Insecticon Hive Workers with her Laser attack! Divide and conquer. Not bad. Punch thinks as he's raked by fire on both sides. Punch moves to one side, catching way more height than may be expected, and grabs for one of the ranged insects flanking him. His intention is to throw it into the other ranger but that still relies on actually catching the thing in the first place. "Get over here!" is all Punch can manage as he ascends. Combat: Punch strikes Insecticon Hive Workers with his Avoiding any pun situations here. (Punch) attack! "Coloney?" Smokescreen asks curiously. "You mean these other ones aren't in ... your coloney?" he motions toward the other Insecitcons. "How long have you been on this planet?" he glances back toward Punch and the EDC then back at .. Stool. "I'm Smokescreen." he says suddenly remmebering the bug gave his name. The name means nothing to the Autobot but he does know some of its connotations in human culture. Thrown, Spun, Punched, and Gunned, the Insecticons cry out in unison, the diminshed swarm hesitates...and as before in all fights, it considers retreat, despite the hunger. "feed...hurry!" the masses whisper. "Find..seek...alone!". The kick Kenya delivers penetrates armor, causing the firebug to shudder and collapse. Talia's aerial acrobatics dismount the ravenous insect, though it scrapes at her wing as it goes, desperately clacking with its mandibles for another bite. While Poise's shot isn't as devastating, she wards it off until that retreat is sounded moments later. What was most unexpected was Daniel Witwicky's unexpected entrance as a volley of rockets and colors disorient and dismay the horde. A thousand eyes and a hundred bodies all suffer as one, panicking the remaining Insecticons. Stool drops what he is doing, as if...forgetting his precious debris ball, and takes flight with the others, "hunger...hurry...seek...find...need." He whispers in the same bland droning of the others, as one they whisper a metallic "Flee...." as they start to take to the skies, and away... Combat: Insecticon Hive Workers begins retreating, leaving itself vulnerable to parting shots from Imager, Smokescreen, Combat Hovercycle , Punch, Exo Rider , Power Armor , Doublecross, and VSC-25 Firehawk Power Armor remains in the air and keeps firing at the retreating Insecticon, <> Combat: Power Armor strikes Insecticon Hive Workers with his Pistol attack! "Ah hate hitchhikers," Talia mutters to no one else as the big scrabbles at the wing in the process of being thrown off. It takes a few moments to reorient mid-air, and by that point the swarm is already pulling back. "An' now ya made me miss a big ol' shootin' gallery!" Dang it, the Pyrestarter hasn't switched over from it's heat ammo to the normal explosive rounds yet. With a snort of annoyance, she just pops off a couple of shots from the tritary guns concealed within the wings. "Go'on, scat! Skedaddle!" Doublecross transforms into his Double-Headed Dragon mode. Banking round, Daniel continues to keep his distance. There's little he can do about the bigger Insection (he knows his own power armours limitations, and the word 'support' is in it's tactical designation), but he can hopefully free someone else up to go deal with it. <<"Word of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. At least I would hope they have been. Tell me someone told some tale of how I fell fighting a hundred sharkticons, or something like that. Someone had to come up with some daring story right?>> And then the Insecticons are retreating, rather unexpectedly. <<"Okay, who set off the can of raid?">> There's a definite air of humour in the Witwickys voice. So, it's a day of the week ending in Y. He proceeds to kick his exo craft into the air and let loose some of his magnetic bombs on the insecticons. Combat: Exo Rider strikes Insecticon Hive Workers with his Magnetic Paint Bomb attack! Combat: That attack has locked on Insecticon Hive Workers. (LOCKON) Stool raises his head at the mention of Talia saying 'scat' for some reason. Combat: VSC-25 Firehawk strikes Insecticon Hive Workers with her Pistol attack! Combat: Critical Hit! GAME: James Bailey has connected. James Bailey arrives from the Underground Mfg and Research - Burkina Faso. James Bailey has arrived. Poise says, "Sir, I've got some playback of the target. Its not the best in frame, but I'll send it over tacnet for analysis." From the sidelines, Doublecross has made his sudden appearance and... that's it. He hasn't jumped into the fray or tried to attack the retreating insecticons. One head of this two-headed monstrousity snaps at the other, but both keep a watchful distance. Combat Hovercycle gives a nod of 'that's right' as the bug buzzes off. She brings her bike around to regroup with the others quietly. <> The Neb takes her helmet off, her high pitched voice ringing, "And that...paint bomb? What was that? Should help track the targets...if we don't kill them all." Poise hops off of her cycle, switching to be on foot. Coming in over tacnet is the backside of the Insecticon Kenya noted. About 'leader class' sized, it has large wing struts, but the actual wings themselves seemed to ripple with an odd green. Further inspection indicates that it was simply jets of air itself. From the backside of it, that's all that can really be made out of it, but at least there is something to go with now... Punch sees his agressors start to retreat. Instead of firing further he takes a step or two back trying to track their course and, from that, hopefully get further intel on where they're going. After all. Intelligence is supposed to be what he does. "Where are you going? Why here? What was it for? Hmm." Punch slights a cig and lights it. As he puffs it into life he muses and watches further. Well at least with the Insecticons munching through everything once they're gone Talia has plenty of space to bring her VTOL down to land. Once she's got her helmet off and grabs her hat she pops open hatch. "Well looky who finally showed up." He tone is more of a jovial tease to the Bots than anything else, even if their disappearance was a bit of an annoyance. After six months of silence, it appears the Autobots have returned to Earth. Six months of raids, of independance. The humans and Benefactors stand on one side, admist the partially ruined refinery, the wind picking up silently as the bugs writhe and convulse in death, as the Autobots stand on the other... The real question now is how do things stand?